The Samoa regulator has announced that legal Starlink users in Samoa will continue to have access to their services, as confirmed by SpaceX and will not be affected by the temporary cut-off scheduled for 21 August.
However, those in Samoa who are using Starlink units without proper registration, type approval, and spectrum licensing—who have not submitted their serial numbers to SpaceX—will face disconnection on 22 August 2024.
The deadline for them to register the units is 21 August 2024.
This announcement was made by the Regulator, Lematua Gisa Fuatai-Purcell in a notice distributed to the media on Tuesday afternoon.
As reported earlier, Starlink users in Samoa were informed of the temporary service interruptions last week while regulatory approvals were pending.
Since April, users have paid regulatory fees totaling $1,150(US$551) + GST for licensing and $3,000(US$1,103) + GST annually for business spectrum use.
Lematua in an interview with Samoa Observer newspaper last week stated that while Starlink’s regulatory approval process is close to completion, the final approval depends on additional clarifications from SpaceX. Currently, Starlink units in Samoa are operating under a temporary “Mobile-Regional” plan, as SpaceX lacks a commercial license in the country.